


Tulsa Could Be Beautiful

by MurderedByAbby



Category: Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe, The Outsiders (1983), The Outsiders - All Media Types, The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
Genre: Alternate Universe - Heathers, Angst, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Eating Disorders, F/M, Fluff, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, I’m gonna call the girl in yellow Heather for a little nod to the original, M/M, Murder, Non-Graphic Violence, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide, Suicide Attempt, Suicide Notes, Teen Romance, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 17:10:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13979730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MurderedByAbby/pseuds/MurderedByAbby
Summary: Johnny Cade has an opportunity for popularity and social protection. But when he takes the chance, the consequences on his relationships may make him regret it. And when a new boy shows up at his school, fighting his way to respect and looking too tough for his own good, everything begins take a sharp turn downhill.The Outsiders but a Heathers au(Disclaimer: This is not meant to demonize Cherry, Marcia, Randy, or any other characters shown as bullies or rude or anything along those lines. I have no intentions of taking this story too seriously, neither should you. I have tremendous respect for all of these characters, good and bad qualities. I’m not going to sit here and try claim that any of them are as bad as Heather Chandler, I just saw these characters as the best fit. Please respect my decisions on this matter. Thank you.)





	1. Beautiful: Part One

I believe that I’m a good person. Y’know, I believe that there’s good in everybody. But here we are, on the first day of senior year. I have to look around at all of these kids I’ve known all of my life and ask myself, what happened?

As I hear the insults thrown around in every direction, I can’t help but feel vulnerable. My name is Jonathan Cade, and my home is here at the bottom of the social ladder. I have one friend, and he’s not what you would call popular by any means. At least soon, I’ll be out of this dump and into college.

As I’m getting lost in thought, I bump into someone who’s at least twice my size. “Watch where you’re going nerd!” 

I look up into the eyes of Robert Sheldon. Under my breath, I mutter, “How about you watch where you’re going, Bob.”

“What’d you just say to me, fag?” I hate to admit that I shrunk in on myself in fear, but it’s the truth. Bob had beaten me to a pulp before, he would do it again. He’s been spending his years in this school on the football team, joining his friends in smacking helpless kids’ lunch trays and being a dick.

“Nothing, sorry.” He snarls as he replies, “You better be.” One of the most popular kids in school. He’s an asshole, but a force to be reckoned with nonetheless, so nobody really calls him out on it. Except for the occasional fight between him and his girlfriend, Cherry Valance, that boy is never put into his place. 

I try my hardest to continue to push through the overly crowded hallway. As much as navigation is important, it’s more important that I’m not noticed by any of my peers. As I lean my face towards the ground, I feel a chest collide with my head. Well, shit, second time this morning. 

“I’m so sorr- oh! Hey Pony,” I look up in the process of apologizing to find that I had ran headfirst into my best friend, Ponyboy Curtis. 

Ponyboy had this long auburn hair he kept greased back like he was from two or three decades ago. A guess that kept us together, we were both stuck in a different time, the trends of years ago. Ponyboy had tried to grease my hair back once or twice, but it was too thick and long, and just flopped right back over my forehead.

His greenish-gray eyes were always surrounded by a pair of fake circular wire-frame glasses, which he claimed were ‘fashionable’ and fit his personality. Honestly, I couldn’t put up much argument. They enhanced his bookish look, and even if he was athletic, it sure didn’t show if you were just looking at his clothes. That boy always had a book in his hands, and he was constantly doodling. He could run and play football like a champ, but it just wasn’t apparent. He was one of those dorky lookin’ kids, quirky and oodly dressed, but the second you took a look at his legs, you realized he was much more athletic than he let on.

“Hey Johnnycakes! Are we still on for movie night?!” His eyes lit up at the mere idea of watching a movie. I smiled slightly, but I doubt he could tell with the way I’m slouching and the way my bangs fall over my face. “Of course, Pone. I’d never cancel on you. What’d you rent this time?” 

I listened as intently as I could manage, while Ponyboy talked about Paul Newmann as if he was a god. The way he talked about the star is what pretty much convinced me he was at least a little bit gay. Well, that and the time he and Randy Adderson dated in kindergarten, but they were too innocent to know any different back then. You couldn’t expect much else from kids who just wanted be seen as older than they were. 

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Randy jumped up behind Ponyboy and shouted in his ear. “Hey, dorkwad!” He slammed the boy’s lunch tray down onto the floor. 

Randy was actually pretty intelligent, considering his taste in social groups. But Randy knew what he was supposed to do, he understood his place.

My hands were shaking and my breath was slightly uneven. This boy had hurt me badly before, and he wasn’t going to do that to Pony. My voice was shaking as I shouted at him, “Hey, you better pick that up Randy!”

He looked almost mystified, as if nobody had ever stood up to him, and his outer shell of overconfident-football-player crumbled for only a moment, as if he was sorry for what he was doing. Then, his face went hard again. 

“I’m sorry, are you actually talking to me?”

I clenched my fists to keep myself steady. 

“Yes, I am. I wanna know what gives you a right to pick on him. You’re a high school has-been waiting to happen, asshole.” 

He paused, thinking before he acted. He wasn’t impulsive like Bob. He was cold and calculated, and I was given the impression that he had always been.

“You have a zit. Right. There.”

My face got hot, and I was trembling even more than before. Ponyboy put a hand on my shoulder. 

“Let’s go Johnny, c’mon we gotta get goin’.”

I got he was saying. ‘Let’s go before you get beat up again. Let’s go before you do something you regret.’ I think he was under the impression I was completely serious when I said that I would kill him and Bob if they hurt me like that again. If they scared me like that again. To a degree, I was. But, I won’t lie, that wasn’t a good decision to make (and besides, I didn’t literally mean kill). I’m no coward, and I never was, but those boys could scare the shit out of anyone. My father had beaten me with a two-by-four without getting a single whimper out of me, but there schoolwas something about high school boys that put everyone on edge. Maybe it was the reputation that was put on the line. Maybe that’s what made everything in high school so terrifying. 

As Ponyboy and I sat at our lunch table, I scrawled something down in my diary. I could tell all of the other kids in our school felt the same way as I wrote the words down.

‘Dear Diary,

Why do they hate me?  
Why don’t I fight back?  
Why-‘

Some kid bumps against my shoulder, making the words I was writing turn into a scribble. “Look! It’s Cherry!”

Cherry Valance was a daily occurrence, and really didn’t spark my interest. But, of course, it did strike Ponyboy’s. He thought she was beautiful, even if she wasn’t exactly ‘nice’. She was, definitely, beautiful, but I knew better than to go anywhere near her.

She was followed by Marcia Smith and Heather Williams, who were her only ‘friends’, aside from Bob, Randy, and whichever football player was Heather’s boyfriend this week. You could feel it radiating off of them that they thought other people were beneath them. Or maybe they were just really good at faking it. 

Marcia was a closed book. The school knew barely anything about that girl, except that she cheerlead and ran the funnies in the school newspaper. She had dark chocolate hair that went to her chin, and these cute swooping side-bangs. She seemed sweet, but no one ever got close enough to tell for sure, so we were all a little cautious of her.

Heather was a peppy girl. She was head cheerleader, always wore yellow and according to Pony, ‘always looked stunning in it’. She seemed like an upper-class preppy carbon-copy. At least, that was what she showed the school. Her medium-tone brown hair was always bulled up into a ponytail, with her bangs hanging down close to her eyebrows.

Cherry flipped her long red hair behind her shoulders as she got closer to the table of football players they sat with whenever they weren’t doing lunchtime polls. She had these beautiful emerald eyes, and her hair always looked perfect. No one could deny that she was a pretty girl. And she was popular. It was odd, I had known her since preschool, when everyone was friends with everyone. But somewhere along the line she just became popular. It wasn’t gradual, more like someone flicking a light switch. She was the legend that little girls with their faces caked in makeup wanted to become. 

As these girls pushed their way through the lunchroom to their boyfriends, an idea sparked in my mind. “Ponyboy,” I whispered. “I’m gonna make us popular, Pone.” He tilted his head in confusion when he looked at me, and then grinned a full toothy grin. “You mean it, Johnny?” I couldn’t help but smile, even though if my plan failed it was social death, guaranteed. I loved to see Ponyboy happy. 

I had always been observant, and I had picked up a thing or two. Including my teachers’ signatures.


	2. Beautiful: Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Johnny is swept up into a world of popularity, and hidden emotions, in less than five minutes.

Everyone knew where Cherry, Marcia, and Heather spent their time. The E-wing bathroom. The issue was getting in there before the girls. They stuck outside next to the mirrors, so it would be easy for me to get close to them without seeming like a total perv. 

I could hear the girls talking from inside of the boys’ bathroom, and it seemed like Cherry was leading the conversation.

“Honestly, Robert can be so immature,” she said, annoyance in her voice, and I could picture her leaning up real close to the mirror and doing her mascara. “He drinks, drags Randy with him, and expects something from me for it. Marcia, you’re lucky Randy would never do that on his own. He’s level-headed. Bob can be such an asshole!”

“C’mon, Cher, he’s a good guy,” I could practically hear Heather’s reassuring smile, and imagined her brushing out Cherry’s beautiful hair as they gossiped. “You know you love him.” 

I thought it was slightly odd that I couldn’t hear Marcia, as talkative as she always was. When I heard puking from the next door bathroom, I realized exactly where she was. Jesus. Sure, the entire school had seen her comparing herself to Cherry in middle school, but she had become so popular we all just stopped concerning ourselves with it.

I could hear Cherry’s voice again. “Grow up, Marcia. There are better ways to get attention.” To be completely honest, I expected her to be worse than she was. Even as fucked up as what Cherry was saying was, it didn’t feel too serious. Somehow, that seemed to make it even worse, even if I knew it wasn’t.

“Maybe you should see a doctor,” Heather suggested, a small hint of worry in her voice. I heard the door of the other bathroom swing open and closed, squeaking on its hinges. 

“Yeah, Heather, maybe I should.”

Just as she said that, I heard Mr. Syme, one of the English teachers, walk up to the group of girls. “Ah, hello ladies! You wouldn’t happen to have a hall pass, would you?” 

I popped my head out of the bathroom door to get a look at what was going on, careful to stay just out of their line of sight. Dammit, my hands were shaking again. 

Cherry was the first to speak up. “Marcia wasn’t feeling well, we’re helping her.” She crossed her arms tight over her chest, standing her ground.

“Not without a hall pass. Week’s worth of detention! An-“ He was cut off by the old hinges of the door as I pushed it open. Cherry’s hair bounced as she turns toward me, a look of something akin to disgust on her features. My face felt hot, and my voice was shaky again, but I spoke with barely any thought. “Actually, Mr. Syme, all four of us are out on a hall pass. Newsletter committee.” 

Mr Syme walked up to me, gave me a once-over, and snatched the pass from my hands. He read it a few times, taking into account every curve of the signature at the bottom. “Alright, hurry up and get where you’re going kids.”

Cherry cocked her hip to the side, resting a hand against it. “Who’re you?”

I paused, barely able to stutter out my name. “J-johnny, Johnny Cade, I-uh-I crave a boon.” I played with the cuff of my jean jacket, waiting for an answer. All three girls narrowed their eyes at me. Cherry took a step in my direction. “What boon?” To my surprise, she sounded more curious than menacing. 

“Uh- let me sit with you at lunch, just once! If people see that you tolerate me they’ll leave me alone.” Marcia and Heather chuckled at this, but Cherry shushed them. Hurriedly, I continued, “Before you answer, I can also do permission slips, report cards, and absence notes!” 

“How about prescriptions?”

“Shut up, Marcia.”

“Sorry, Cherry.”

Cherry’s face softened a bit. “You do seem like a good kid, for your type. And you do have nice bone structure.” Heather smiled and grabbed my chin, turning my face towards her. “And you have a symmetrical face!” She seemed excited by the idea of having a new beauty experiment. “If I took a meat cleaver down the center of your skull, I’d have matching halves!” She seemed to realize she sounded a bit crazy to me, as she clarified with, “That’s very important.” 

Marcia spoke up. “Of course, you could stand to slouch a little less, and lose some of that hair,” she shrugged as she proposed this idea, which earned a nod from the other girls. 

“And y’know,” Cherry started. “You could be really beautiful. Chapstick, and maybe some mascara, then you’re on your way. Marcia,” she gestured towards the brunette. “Get him some blush, oh and Heather I’m going to need your brush.” She paused to poke and prod at my face a bit. “We’ll make you beautiful, okay?”

I don’t even hesitate. “Okay!”

God, what was I getting myself into?

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! (Comments are very appreciated!)


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